BUILDING A WEBGIS APPLICATION FOR LOCATING PARKS, PRESERVES, AND AMENITIES FOR ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA

Abstract

Parks and recreational facilities are an important amenity that most Americans expect their local governments to be able to provide. Having access to parks has been shown to improve physical activity levels, as well as reduce stress and promote social cohesion. However, many residents are unfamiliar with the locations and the types of recreational facilities that are available to them in their communities. As information seeking increasingly moves to an online medium, local governments must do the same, making information about their recreational facilities available in an easy-to-use, accessible format online. The goal of this project is to construct an interactive web application for the parks and recreation of St. Lucie County, Florida. This feature aims to allow residents to learn more information about parks within the county, incorporating features that search by distance, by desired amenity, or simply by viewing the park boundaries on a web map. A combination of orthoimagery and fieldwork is used to confirm and update the features of each park to ensure that the list of amenities is accurate and up to date. ArcGIS Pro is used to update the dataset. ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Experience Builder, and ArcGIS Solutions are used to construct a web application, and to ensure that it is accessible and user-friendly. This project provides a much-needed update to St. Lucie County’s parks database and supports the county’s ability to provide accurate and accessible information to its constituents in a digital format.